


Final Moments

by azure7539



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azure7539/pseuds/azure7539
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moments shared before and during Harry's walk to the Forbidden Forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. From Harry

**Author's Note:**

> Both chapters originally written in March.
> 
> Warning: This has NOT been beta-ed. All errors are of my own doing though I have tried to limit them to a minimum.
> 
> Disclaimer: Nothing here, except for the wording, is mine.
> 
> You have been warned.

**FINAL MOMENTS**

* * *

_"I’ll go with you.”_

Her quivering voice and teary brown eyes haunted his mind, and with the long and quiet walk from Hogwarts to the Forbidden Forest, he had used it to fill in the silence and empty aching void created by that cold gap in his heart.

The warmth of her tight, desperate embrace lingered, and he cherished every ounce of it the whole way.

Which was more painful? He found himself wondering.

Which was more painful? Holding her in his arms, knowing that she would die along with him, or letting her go to finish the other part of the final chess move, knowing there was more than a mere possibility that she would die in the process also?

Perhaps he should consider it sort of a blessing, even if he missed the firm grasp of her fingers intertwining with his own as well as the ghostly caress of her lovely perfume over his brain—feverish from pain. At least, this way, there was no chance of her being tortured and dying alone when he was gone. Ron would give everything to ensure it, he knew, and for that Harry was relieved and at ease with this arrangement.

Harry didn’t mind the loneliness, not really, having grown used to it from befriending his own shadow a long, long time ago already when he had realized no-one was ever going to willingly follow him into that dark space under the stairs called his ‘cupboard’.

_“I’ll go with you.”_

Except for her.

-

Voldemort was saying something, Harry hardly paid half a mind to the words. When that madman pointed the Elder Wand straight at him, Harry closed his eyes, hands clenching tight. He could still see the fast-approaching flash of green light from behind his eyelids though, but for a moment there his heart fluttered as he thought he could feel the familiar fullness of her hand sliding into his, surely and securely… and Harry almost smiled.

 

(07/03/2015)


	2. From Hermione

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both chapters originally written in March.
> 
> Warning: This has NOT been beta-ed. All errors are of my own doing though I have tried to limit them to a minimum.
> 
> Disclaimer: Nothing here, except for the wording, is mine.
> 
> You have been warned.

**FINAL MOMENTS**

* * *

Aside from being reckless and foolhardy, Harry had always been a lonely child. That much she knew. A lonely child with a people-saving and self-sacrificial thing. This, she knew also.

He never talked much about this childhood, Harry, and why would he anyway? People, lonely people, had always been ones to lick their wounds in private because they were so used to the haunting cold silence that existed almost constantly all around them.

No child hugged like him, though.

No happy child froze and stiffened when someone hugged him.

No happy child, once grown accustomed to that gesture of affection, hugged as desperately as he did.

Harry… he relished and basked in every hug, every pat and every bit of warmth that he could possibly derive from them. His arms always tightened around their backs; his fingers always clung to their clothes, grasping and holding on.

And she also noticed how his eyes always fell closed, how his lips always quirked up into a smile, and how deeply he breathed in whenever he hugged. It was as if he was trying to inhale—infuse—their every feature and characteristic into his own being, memorizing all the little details that he could.

She imagined there was a file cabinet tucked away somewhere in the back of his mind with their names carefully labeled on each drawer where he needed only to pull one out and re-examine all the memories he had of the people he cared about stored there.

She imagined him tracing along those captured moments ever so gently with his calloused fingertips as he always did while gazing at the looping picture of his parents twirling around in a shower of orange-colored falling leaves.

Precious, cherished, treasured…

But fragile.

She imagined this to be where he wept quietly to himself for everything he had lost as well.

“Oh, Harry,” was the sigh she sometimes caught tumbling out of her mouth somewhat unconsciously as of late.

Every time, the wistful syllables ate at her mind that much more than before.

Every time, it made her body shiver.

-

There were a lot of things that she knew, and an awful lot more that she didn’t.

However, what she knew for certain was that the end had finally arrived when he hugged her that one last time.

His arms never tightened around her, and those hands were stroking her back like he was trying to soothe her fluttering, aching ribcage. His eyes didn’t close, she could tell, and neither did his lips form a smile.

Instead, he sighed.

-

The infinite silence of this false note of calm swallowed up his lonely footsteps.

And she could almost hear her heart breaking apart as she watched his blurry figure limp resolutely away, resting all his hopes and dreams for the future into their hands with not even one backward glance.

Chest caving and throat constricting, Hermione couldn’t utter a single sound, fearing that nothing but a feral cry of pain would come spilling out.

 

(11/03/2015)

-

-

-

_End~_


End file.
